Miles Covered (aka Archives)

Determined

It’s track Tuesday! I am still amazed that I have come to love this workout of the week! Since I missed my mile repeats last week, Josh and I swapped out 8 800’s for 4 mile repeats. It’s the same distance covered and mentally, I needed the confidence boost of running a longer distance for my speed work. I set out to meet Josh and head to the Roosevelt HS track determined and confident. I wasn’t questioning whether I could do this. I knew I could. Like I said, I needed this to rebuild my confidence after missing 2 speed workouts last week.

Josh and I were the only people crazy enough to show up at the track in 20 degree weather this morning. Thankfully, the wind was mild, but throughout the entire first mile, I had tears streaming down my face from the cold air. I couldn’t really make out my footing ahead of me starting out. Surprising, that first mile felt great! As we closed in on the first lap around the track, Josh was giving me some instruction, I thought for sure he was going to tell me to speed up a bit to get on pace. I was shocked when he actually told me to slow down! Gladly! 🙂

The 2nd mile felt tougher, but we still nailed it. I remembered when we first started going to the track together to work on speed drills. It was during the hot and humid days that hung on in Iowa this summer. I think I would gladly take the colder temps than humidity any day! As we started out on our 3rd mile, I began to question how long I could hold on to this feeling of ease at this pace. We were pushing it, finishing each repeat slightly faster than our goal pace. Instead, I knocked that thought out of my head and kept running. The fact was I was feeling good! And I needed to keep my head focused.

I noticed for the 1st time ever, I would rather complete my speed drills on the track over the treadmill. In the past, I preferred the treadmill because it kept pace for me and kept me going. A guarantee that I would nail the workout. I didn’t have to rely on myself to get me there. Other random thoughts that passed through my mind was how easy 800s are when they’re part of mile repeats! When we work on 800s, I’m counting down each 200 in an effort to push myself to the end. As we ran the miles, running twice around the track seemed like no big deal!

Before I knew it, we were on our 4th mile repeat. It was definitely rougher than the very 1st one. 100 meters into it, my glutes started to burn. I tried to stay focused, but my thoughts were drifting towards emails I needed to send today and how to schedule out the packed holiday weekend ahead. I usually slow down when my thoughts drift and sure enough, Josh encouraged me to kick it in. I snapped out of it and finished up with a burst of speed. It resulted in our fastest mile this morning.

I finished knowing that I still had more in me. What’s more, I finished knowing that I didn’t count on or rely on Josh to lead me. I paced myself. The difference was, I believed in myself this morning, rather than believing that someone else was needed to get me there.